Sleep News and Research

Latest Sleep News and Research

Participants recruited for VCU study on premenstrual dysphoric disorder

The Virginia Commonwealth University Mood Disorders Institute is recruiting participants for a national study of a new treatment method for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a severe and debilitating form of premenstrual syndrome, or PMS.

4 Feb 2008

New Parkinson's disease research points to serotonin

For most people with Parkinson's disease, the only relief from the tremors, rigidity and impaired movement associated with the progressive loss of their motor skills is a drug called L-DOPA. But as the disease progresses, L-DOPA can cause prominent side effects that counteract its effectiveness.

4 Feb 2008

FDA approves only once-daily inhaled corticosteroid for children

Schering-Plough Corporation has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ASMANEX TWISTHALER 110 mcg (mometasone furoate inhalation powder) for the maintenance treatment of asthma as a preventive therapy in patients 4 to 11 years of age.

4 Feb 2008

Why is scratching so nice?

In the first study to use imaging technology to see what goes on in the brain when we scratch, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have uncovered new clues about why scratching may be so relieving - and why it can be hard to stop. The work is reported online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and will appear in a future print issue.

31 Jan 2008

Antidepressants might be worthless for treating low back pain

The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.

30 Jan 2008

Evidence strongly supports diuretics as initial metabolic syndrome therapy, especially in black patients

New research shows that in people with high blood pressure as part of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that increases the risk for heart disease, diuretics offer greater protection against cardiovascular disease, including heart failure, and are at least as effective for lowering blood pressure as newer, more expensive medications.

28 Jan 2008

Quitting marijuana as hard as quitting cigarettes

Research by a group of scientists studying the effects of heavy marijuana use suggests that withdrawal from the use of marijuana is similar to what is experienced by people when they quit smoking cigarettes.

25 Jan 2008

M. D. Anderson, AstraZeneca form alliance to advance understanding of cancer-related pain

The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) today announced that they will collaborate to help advance understanding of neuropathic pain caused by cancer chemotherapy, a side effect that often limits optimal therapeutic dosing in cancer treatments.

25 Jan 2008

Deafness and seizures result when glutamate protein deleted in mice

Scientists have discovered that mice genetically engineered to lack a particular protein in the brain have profound deafness and seizures.

25 Jan 2008

No clear evidence that antidepressants assist in the management of chronic low back pain

Doctors commonly prescribe antidepressants for patients with low back pain for three main reasons; to relieve pain; reduce mild depression and improve a person's mood; and improve sleep.

24 Jan 2008

Music therapy may offer hope for people with depression

A therapist may be able to use music to help some patients fight depression and improve, restore and maintain their health, states a Systematic Review from The Cochrane Library.

24 Jan 2008

Researcher transplants stem cells to try to save patients' legs

A Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researcher has launched the first U.S. trial in which a purified form of subjects' own adult stem cells was transplanted into their leg muscles with severely blocked arteries to try to grow new small blood vessels and restore circulation in their legs.

23 Jan 2008

Researchers look at link between inability to express emotions and sleep disturbances

A group of Finnish investigators has explored the relationship between alexithymia (the inability to express emotions) and sleep disturbances in the 2008 January issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

23 Jan 2008

Popular sleeping pill Stilnox in danger of being classed with morphine, narcotics and amphetamines

A popular sleeping pill that has reportedly triggered bizarre side-effects in some people, could be placed by Australian drug regulators into the same class as morphine, narcotics and amphetamines.

22 Jan 2008

Sleep plays a critical role in the brain's ability to learn

Most people know it from experience: After so many hours of being awake, your brain feels unable to absorb any more-and several hours of sleep will refresh it.

21 Jan 2008

Shift work may increase the risk of enforced early retirement among women

The findings are based on just under 8000 male and female employees, who were part of a large health and work study (Danish Work Environment Cohort Study), which began in 1990, and data from the national welfare register.

16 Jan 2008

Why we sleep - roundworm C. elegans unlocks sleep mysteries

The roundworm C. elegans, a staple of laboratory research, may be key in unlocking one of the central biological mysteries: why we sleep.

15 Jan 2008

A good night's sleep could improve long-term memory

Scientists from the Medical Research Council's Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit (ANU) at the University of Oxford have discovered evidence that sleep is important for the stabilisation of memory.

14 Jan 2008

Two different neural pathways regulate loss and regain of consciousness during general anesthesia

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have answered long-running questions about the way that anesthetics act on the body, by showing that the cellular pathway for emerging from anesthesia is different from the one that drugs take to put patients to sleep during operations.

14 Jan 2008

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis - potential clues into the treatment and diagnosis

Studies published in the Jan. 10 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) are providing clues into the treatment and diagnosis of LAM, or lymphangioleiomyomatosis, a progressive and deadly lung disease that affects women in their childbearing years.

11 Jan 2008